Ensuring milk availability for the military

WASHINGTON — For those stepping up to serve and protect the U.S., access to a cold glass of nature’s most perfect food — milk — is not currently a given.

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, introduced the “Strengthening our Servicemembers with Milk Act” alongside Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania in January. The legislation would direct the U.S. Secretary of Defense to provide fluid or powdered milk to members of the armed forces at dining facilities on military installations.

“Right now, the military does not have to provide milk to our troops on military bases, and being from Wisconsin I find that bizarre,” Van Orden said. “I’ve run into it several times personally. I served for 26 years and have been deployed around the world. I’ve lived and worked on five continents. On several of the bases we just didn’t have milk available to us. To me, that is just silly.”

As a Wisconsin native, Van Orden said that lack concerned him on several levels, and he reached out to active duty servicemembers to see if access issues are still a problem. He learned that they are.

“Milk is quite possibly the most nutritious fluid you can consume,” Van Orden said. “We have a younger population in the military, a number of them are still growing actually. They need strong bones; they need those essential minerals found in milk.”

Van Orden said for many servicemembers, a glass of milk can be a comfort in what can be stressful and dangerous situations.

“Even though I’ve lived it, it’s hard to imagine life without a simple glass of milk,” Van Orden said. “Imagine being overseas, serving your country and not being able to have that little bit of home?”

Van Orden said ensuring milk is available to service members is not a new concept.

“There is a contract from the 1960s that provides milk on submarines,” Van Orden said. “Submarines don’t like carrying fluid milk because of space restraints; but they can make their own water and oxygen. With powdered milk — which can be as nutritious as fluid milk — our sailors can have a nice, cold glass of milk 600 feet below the surface of the ocean. They rely on that milk as a source of vitamin D, which is a primary concern in that situation.”

This bill to ensure milk is available to military service members is a hallmark of the things important to Van Orden as he serves in the U.S. House of Representatives: support for Wisconsin agriculture and support for the troops.

“What we’re doing here in my office is trying to make sure that every single thing we can do to ensure our dairy farmers have a level playing field on the world stage (happens), and also that we can get our products out to our own people,” Van Orden said. “That is a primary focus of my office, taking care of our farmers.”

This is the second time Van Orden has introduced the legislation, but he said he is confident that this time it will make its way through both chambers of Congress and find its way to the president’s desk to become law.

“This bill is very simple and it’s just the right thing to do,” Van Orden said. “I really can’t see anyone opposing it. It just ensures our servicemembers access to any kind of milk — powdered, flavored, 1%, 2%, whole — you just have to have it available to them.”

In addition to this bill, Van Orden said he is happy to see a number of dairy-related bills being introduced.

“We’ve been able to tie a lot of them into the farm bill, which we are working diligently to get done,” Van Orden said. “It was disappointing the way the farm bill was held up in the last Congress. Was it a perfect bill? No, but it was a good bill. No legislation is ever going to be perfect.”

Van Orden said he did not feel there was a lot of focus on ag in the last Congress.

“I am hopeful we can change that and bring ag into the foreground,” he said. “We need to focus on our American agriculture industry. If you become dependent on somebody else to feed your country, you’ll find yourself in a tight spot rather quickly. You have to feed your own people.”